So who's thinking of getting this or pre-ordered already? It looks to be glorious with all the improvements Kerberos has made.

For those of you who don't know what SotS is, it's a 4X strategy game where empire management and moving your fleets around is handled in a turn-based fashion while battles are handled in real-time. Ships are fully customizable and an emphasis is put on the game not turning into an interactive spreadsheet (as is what happens with many 4X games).

Here's a description ripped from Steam,

About the Game
Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter is the full stand-alone follow-up to the hit 4X-styled Sword of the Stars franchise. The continuing storyline will reveal the dark secrets of the ancient force responsible for tampering with the races in the original Sword of the Stars. Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter will be a major step forward in 4X gameplay, taking the easy-to-learn-but-hard-to-master philosophy set out in SotS1 and following that path to a new standard in space strategy games.

Key features:

Lead one of six playable factions, including a completely new one, as you strive for galactic dominance

i'm really looking forward to it. any game set in space is automatically given an edge in my book, and a quality, in depth 4x has no competitors. of course i may be busy shooting people in the face in bf3, but i will be getting this and putting some time in regardless

I waited a year for this game and bought it and they released this broken tragedy, they better fix this, seriously, steam made me delete it and re-download it and it still doesen't work.

Is anyone else getting these problems, crashing when you click on anything, is it just me.

Edit:After looking around it seems the dev uploaded the beta to steam and then noticed it, and reuploaded another beta after that that was even worst, so now they need to upload the release version(If its finished?).

I've not bought it. You could try going into the properties and disabling the steam in-game option. That's what they've had me do w/ a few games of theirs and it fixed some issues. If I were on my main I'd be able to be more detailed. I'll root through some email and see if I can find their suggestions.

edit:

Please exit Steam entirely. Then, browse to the game's installation folder, found here by default: C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\swkotor\ Run swconfig.exe and choose the appropriate resolution and settings for your system, click Apply and then Close. Now, right click on swkotor.exe and choose Properties. Click the Compatibility tab. Check the box labeled "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and select Windows XP (Service Pack 3). Then, check the boxes labeled "Disable visual themes", "Disable desktop composition", "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings" and "Run this program as an administrator." Click OK. Launch Steam and test the game again. Note: Do not press any keys to skip the opening videos/logos. If the issue continues, you may need to disable the Steam Community Overlay by doing the following: Click the "Steam" menu and choose "Settings". Go to the "In-game" Tab. Uncheck the "Enable Steam Community In-game" checkbox. Then, start the game and re-test the issue. Note: On some computers, it may be necessary to disable (not simply turn off) a secondary monitor if one is being used.

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That was for Star Wars the old republic but you can try any of those and see if they help it run.

Only the first upload was a beta. It's just that the actual release version is severely lacking and buggy. There will be a patch on Monday then every day or two after that for the next few weeks.
For now you can try running the 64bit version via the games directory in steam.

It's playable. As far as enjoyable goes, it depends on your tastes. It's quite a complex game, the tech-tree is semi-random and instead of a point-and-click movement system (in the strategic view) it uses a mission system. Some or all of those things might put you off.

The expansions out. Anyone who already had SotS2 should've been automatically updated to it.Here's the expansions manual (explains the new content).

Here's a run down of the new race:
-Is an AI race.
-Due to being an energy based economy, their income has no interest and they can't spend into deficit.
-Can colonize any planet regardless of climate hazard. However, biosphere reduces their "population" growth and capacity, so they have to kill it off.
-Instead of building ships, they build fleet cubes. These cubes can be shaped and reshaped into whatever ships you want on an as-needed basis.
-They're completely immune to boarding but they can still board others.
-They have no access to the Psionics tech tree. Also, they are immune to all non-kinetic psionics.
-They are (more) vulnerable to EMP-like effects.
-They have no access to the cybernetics tree.
-With the right research they can control enemy drones and tracking ordinance.

I see, but it was Sword of the Stars II: Enhanced Edition when I purchased it, too. However, I do remember the enhanced part not being there in the past. I also misunderstood your last post to mean that only people who had the game before the update would get the DLC (for free), thanks for clarifying that, too.

Just spent the last 6-7 hours playing this with five AI opponents and I have to say I am very impressed. The game has a constant global chat window connection, I suppose it's there in case people need help as the game's a little daunting at first but once you get the hang of it (it'll take a few hours) it's all very well thought out, and of course no bugs to report.

I never played the first game, so, How do you compare it to GalCiv II/Endless Space?

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I skipped GC II (It was a little old by the time I got to it) and had a go at endless space a few days ago in fact when steam did the test weekend, really couldn't get into endless space. Probably didn't give it enough of a chance to be honest, so wouldn't want to make a comparison.

That aside, I have been playing space rts games like homeworld and sins etc. for many years but turn based was quite new, however, they seem to have managed it OK as it plays pretty well and the overall aesthetics can look pretty good (be sure to turn focal blur off).

Just spent the last 6-7 hours playing this with five AI opponents and I have to say I am very impressed. The game has a constant global chat window connection, I suppose it's there in case people need help as the game's a little daunting at first but once you get the hang of it (it'll take a few hours) it's all very well thought out, and of course no bugs to report.

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The global chat was on by default, now they've made so you can turn it on/off from the options menu.